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Tuck your pelvis under and move your chin back. Now lift. Good!
Today I trained my free client, the Leaning Tower, in the gym for the second time ever (the first time was last Tuesday). I may have a hard time expressing how thrilling and cool it is to actually be working with someone. This is a person whose BMI is well over 40 and who hasn't worked out in many years, and whose wrists can't take much pressure, so it's a really great chance for me to work with a BEGINNING beginner. Although she's already lost 30 lbs by changing her diet and walking, I'm having to start her off at a level well below what the NASM book thinks is "Zone 1 for deconditioned clients". For the Tower, standing on one foot for a five-count with one hand on the wall for stability is a good exercise for the ankle-stabilizers. But she's intelligent, aware of what's hurting her and what's not, and can feel when an area is working.
I feel awful when something goes wrong -- last week, I kept her on her left ankle for too long and strained the stabilizers, and this week I didn't warn her to not arch her back during bench presses and she cramped up her back. :-( But on the other hand, we were doing wall pushups today and she couldn't feel her pecs working -- so we tried the bench presses and she still couldn't feel her pecs working, and cramped her back -- so I thought hard about how to isolate the suckers, and finally had her hold a stability ball against the wall and squeeze the sucker. She felt it in her pecs (!) and I did a little victory dance. The Tower wants an improvement in whole-body functionality, and as she gets stronger and we work on her balance and proprioception I KNOW I can help her achieve that. It's ever so exciting.
So this is what I'll be doing with an hour of my Tuesday evenings for the next little while: helping someone become more functional, which in a way is a return to mechanical engineering. Ah, be still my nerdy, gym-rat, 60 beats per minute heart!
I feel awful when something goes wrong -- last week, I kept her on her left ankle for too long and strained the stabilizers, and this week I didn't warn her to not arch her back during bench presses and she cramped up her back. :-( But on the other hand, we were doing wall pushups today and she couldn't feel her pecs working -- so we tried the bench presses and she still couldn't feel her pecs working, and cramped her back -- so I thought hard about how to isolate the suckers, and finally had her hold a stability ball against the wall and squeeze the sucker. She felt it in her pecs (!) and I did a little victory dance. The Tower wants an improvement in whole-body functionality, and as she gets stronger and we work on her balance and proprioception I KNOW I can help her achieve that. It's ever so exciting.
So this is what I'll be doing with an hour of my Tuesday evenings for the next little while: helping someone become more functional, which in a way is a return to mechanical engineering. Ah, be still my nerdy, gym-rat, 60 beats per minute heart!
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I wish we lived in the same city, though. It would be fun to work out together!
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In gymnastics we do some shoulder stretches before hss, like putting our arms on a bar and kneeling down and stretching the arms up and back. A very similar stretch, but upside-down, is to do a bridge (or come through hs to putting feet up on a big foam block, which is more fun) and try to shift the ribcage over the hands.
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